John Russell Taylor, Hitchcock’s official biographer, was interviewed on tape on 20th December 2012 in London, England
“When I was first going to the studio to interview Hitch for my biography, the people around him, particularly Peggy (Robertson) said, don’t mention Marnie because it’s a sore point. It was one of my favourite films and I told Hitch that. Obviously it had left painful memories but he seemed to be pleased that I liked it and praised it. In some ways it was very close to his heart. I knew about the famous quarrel and I heard both sides, because I subsequently talked to Tippi about it. After about two thirds of the film had been shot, they had this quarrel consequent to which they had a flaming row on set to which they never spoke directly to each other for about a week. They would say ‘Would you ask Mr. Hitchcock? Would you ask Miss Hedren?’ which I’m sure contributed to the extraordinary atmosphere about the film. So I asked Hitchcock about it, and he said, ‘Oh we had this row, and she said something that no-one is permitted to say to me, ‘Well, she, hem, referred to my weight.’”
You can read the story in the new Kindle edition of “Hitch” by John Russell Taylor out soon on Amazon.
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